When comparing Groove Music vs Windows Media Player, the Slant community recommends Groove Music for most people. In the question“What are the best music players for Windows?”Groove Music is ranked 12th while Windows Media Player is ranked 19th. The most important reason people chose Groove Music is:

A Groove Music application is available for Windows 10, Xbox, Android, iOS and Windows Phone. There is also a web app that will open all of your music with a simple sign in.

Pros

Pro

Available cross-platform

A Groove Music application is available for Windows 10, Xbox, Android, iOS and Windows Phone. There is also a web app that will open all of your music with a simple sign in.

Pro

Huge music library

Groove Music has a massive music library with over 40 million songs, more than Spotify, Tidal, Deezer and Google Play Music,

Pro

Integration with OneDrive

Groove Music integrates the music streaming service with OneDrive so that users can stream their own music files hosted in their OneDrive.

Pro

Modern UI design

The designs of each Groove Music application from the web application to the Windows Phone 8 application are all slightly different but they all share a modern and attractive design. Though the applications on iOS and Android are less appealing than on the other platforms.

Pro

Ability to request missing content

While other music streaming services simply suggest to contact the artist to add their music to their service, Groove Music allows you to easily file a request for missing content right from the Groove Music player.

Pro

Free music streaming on computers and tablets

The Groove Music web application and Windows 8/10 application offer free music streaming on demand or artist based radio stations with unlimited skips. Although there are occasional advertisements and after 6 months of use, free streaming is limited to 10 hours a month.

Pro

Over 92,000 music videos available with Groove Music Pass

Pro

Has monthly and yearly subscription plans

The Groove Music Pass offers unlimited on demand music and artist based radio stations with unlimited skips, no advertisements, and offline playback. A one month Groove Music Pass is $9.99 and (a better deal) a 12 month pass is $99.90. The 12 month pass is great for kids, those that do not want to pay for a continuous subscription, or those that do not want to use their credit card.

Pro

Bundled with Microsoft Windows

Windows Media Player is bundled with Microsoft Windows as part of Windows' components so that users do not need to use a third party application to play music on a clean install of the OS.

Pro

Beautiful music visualization

Windows Media Player comes with their own built-in music visualization. In addition to this, users can install their own visualizations which are downloaded from the internet.

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Cons

Con

Poor music quality

Bitrate quality is not explicitly stated by Microsoft, but music is reported to be streamed at 192kbps WMA which is lower than most comparable streaming services. While music is downloaded at 256kbps WMA, an improvement but still lower than Google Play Music and Spotify.

Con

Inconsistent updates to Android app

It's a lot better than it used to be, but the update cycle is a slow and painful process.

Con

No social network integration

This may be a huge pro or a con for different types of people. Groove Music does not offer comprehensive social integration like other music services such as Spotify. The only social feature Groove Music offers is the ability to a share a link to a song to Twitter, Facebook, or email. Groove Music will keep all your musical tastes strictly private unless you individually share it.

Con

No song lyrics

Con

No family plan

Many other streaming services now offer a family plan, Groove is lagging behind.

Con

No tablet specific app for iOS or Android

The exclusion of a tablet specific application leaves Android or iOS tablet users with an unoptimized feeling experience.

Con

Sluggish

Con

Large cluttered interface

It's hard to find needed options.

Con

No longer being updated

Windows Media Player is no longer updated to new versions since the release of Windows 7. The latest version of Windows Media Player is Windows Media Player 12 (released in July 2009); it is still bundled in Windows 8 and above.

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